Three days passed in the city of Ulum, as for what Mike did he mostly caught up on his sleep while ignoring the platoon that had been assigned under him, he preferred to sleep upwards of 10 hours a day which was a lot considering his level and how long he normally could go without sleep, but Mike didn't mind it
'Elina and Rebecca disembarked their ship a few days ago and are racing towards me at the moment… at their speed, they said that they should be here in about a week…'
A cold light flashed in Mike's eyes as he thought about how he should kill the blue rose to pass the time, he was currently in the inn room he had spent the last three days in laying on the bed while looking into the ceiling before he let out a yawn and closed his eyes before he began regulating his breathing but just as he was about to drift off to sleep there was a knock on the door which made him snap open his eyes and give a frown, then there was another set of knocks which made Mike even more annoyed as he called out
"What is it?"
"Platoon commander, the blue rose requires your presence"
Mike gave a long sigh before he jumped out of bed and spoke
"Give me a minute to get dressed"
"Yes sir"
Mike wore his leather armor and opened his hand to call the knife which flew over and landed in his hand before he put it into the sheath, then Mike walked up and opened the door, on the other side stood a young soldier that gave him a salute as he spoke out
"Nice to meet you, platoon commander, sir"
Mike gave a nod and began walking towards the stairs with the young soldier hurriedly following after him as he spoke
"The blue rose is in the lord's mansion, I will take you to her"
"...Sure"
Mike walked along with the young soldier in silence but when they passed a pile of corpses on the main plaza did the young soldier speak
"Serves them right, damn traitors"
Mike gave a sigh and continued walking, after they walked a bit more did the young soldier ask
"So what compelled you to join our rightful cause platoon commander, sir?"
Mike gave a sneer and spoke
"Well the blue rose took my companion's hostage and forced me to fight for her"
The young soldier looked surprised for a moment before he gave a laugh
"You sure make good jokes Platoon commander, sir!"
Mike gave a fake laugh as a cold light flashed through his eyes, soon the two of them arrived at the lord's mansion and Mike was showed in, when he eventually arrived on the 3rd floor office overlooking the courtyard he found the blue rose sitting behind the desk writing on some documents, she glanced up when she heard him come in but continued working on her documents, Mike sized up the distance between the two of them, he would be able to kill her in just 0.6 seconds with a well placed throw of the knife right in the middle of her forehead, he was confident that she wouldn't be able to react much less fight back. But he held back, he was going to be free to do whatever he wanted in less than four days when Elina and Rebecca arrived
'Can't wait to skin you alive…'
Mike showed a smile as he thought about how the blue rose was going to beg him for mercy and eventually the sweet release of death, he passed some time in his fantasy before the blue rose spoke up, she was still looking at her documents when she spoke
"Your next orders is to scout the route towards the city of Heicle, now get to it"
Mike remained standing with the confident smile on his face, eventually, the blue rose looked up and froze when she saw his smile, she didn't know why but that smile sent chills down her spine so she yelled at him
"Follow your orders and your companions may live to see tomorrow, don't test me!"
Mike turned around and left the office behind without answering her, as soon as he walked out of the office he put on a cold face and walked out of the mansion where the young soldier still waited for him
"Have we received new orders, platoon commander sir?"
Mike gave a nod
"Gather the platoon, we're scouting the route to Heicle"
"Sir, yes sir!"
The young soldier gave a salute before he turned around and ran towards the temporary camp outside of the city, Mike drew the knife and spun it around while he walked after the egger soldier in a slow yet steady pace, after a while he arrived outside of the city and saw about 16 soldiers one of them being the young soldier that had taken him to the blue rose, Mike cleared his throat and spoke
"As you may have heard I am your new platoon commander, the name's Mike… We will now begin our mission to scout towards Heicle"
The soldiers showed resolute faces before they saluted Mike, they knew that scouting was one of the most dangerous missions on could receive as there always was a chance that they would run into the enemy's main force and be annihilated, but hopefully, that would not happen
"Now who's the navigator?"
"Me sir!"
A soldier raised his hand, Mike gave a nod before he spoke
"Good, follow me to the top of the walls, the rest of you prepare to move"
Mike and the navigator walked up on the walls where Mike got briefed about the direction where Heicle lay and the geographical features in the area as well as potential monster and bandit camps, after he was done receiving the information the platoon set off and for the next two days Mike had the platoon mercilessly comb the entire route towards Heicle or at least half of it before they got tired of his shit, they started talking behind his back which he heard thanks to his amazing hearing
'Looks like I can't waste any more time… Oh well'
Mike changed the strategy to actually scout the area instead of fucking around and so the group walked through the open field that leads towards Heicle, there was nothing but an open field for at least a few kilometers, that's when Mike sensed something wrong and ordered the platoon to turn around and head back to Ulum, the soldiers of course protested and Mike argued with them for some time until he felt it, tiny vibrations in the dirt beneath his feet, he looked back and saw enemy soldiers charging on horseback
"Oh for fuck's sake…"
Soon the platoon was surrounded by approximately 300 soldiers wielding lances on horseback, the members of the platoon paled all except for Mike that thought of how to get out of the situation alive when suddenly one of his platoon members threw his sword away and yelled
"I surrender! Don't kill me please!"
The other soldiers quickly followed suit as some of the enemy soldiers got off their horses and stabbed their lances into the ground as they spoke and drew their swords and picked up their shields that hang on the side of the armored horses, clearly this was an elite unit, Mike was just able to hear what they were saying and gave a frown before he drew the knife and spoke
"They are going to kill us, pick up your weapons"
The soldiers of the platoon ignored Mike and distanced themselves from him before they began fleeing into the arms of their captures and as a result? They were mercilessly cut down, Mike gave a sigh and picked up on of the discarded weapons, it was a sword, he weighed it in his hands for a few moments before he threw it at the enemy soldiers that were closing in with the intent to kill him, it spun through the air as it flew with fast speed but right before it hit its intended target did it suddenly stop as it hit a transparent barrier that was covered in runes and bounced off
"Well… Shit"
Mike spun the knife around as the enemy soldiers closed in before one of them removed her helmet and spoke to Mike while wearing a cocky smile
"Surrender and we might just give you a painless death!"
Mike showed a smile before he slowly shook his head, something inside him felt like it was burning, burning with the desire to live
'...To live and see Julie again..? Man, I really have fallen for her… even though she's dead…'
Mike showed a wry smile and shook his head once again
'No… I need to live in order to kill Hector… Can't die here, so think…'
The enemy soldier assumed Mike was ignoring her and her face flushed with anger as she yelled
"Fine, we'll torture you to death! Formation 14!"
Mike stopped spinning the knife around and wielded it in a backhand grip as he yelled at them
"Come on! I don't have all day..!"